May 2011
12 posts
5 tags
WatchWatch
Concrete makes me think of my childhood, growing up in a engineering lab at a University. Honestly, what other eight year old writes a mini comic staring Super Plasticizer? Anyway, this new development in the aggregate arts, “Concrete Cloth” can be assembled into infrastructure projects of all types; shelters, slope stabilization, ditch lining, etc. The material its-self is comprised...
May 31st
2 notes
8 tags
Self Absorbed
The fine people at TOPCOD surprisingly do not offer Cod, or fish of any kind for that matter. They sell Desiccants, in all varieties. I received TOPCOD’s product in a recent purchase of a celling fan (energy savings rule!) and was interested in it’s texture,as well as claims of “pro-environmental” and “Non-toxic”. Despite the fact that I should definitely not...
May 23rd
8 tags
Kevlar®
A million bazillion years ago, a slight exaggeration, one of the lovely readers here at MG asked about Kevlar®. So here it is. Tardy, sorry. We all know what Kevlar® does, but what is it? Kevlar® is a polymer, actually a polyamide to be precise. Polyamides belong to a group of nylons called Aramids, which are defined as such by the possession of aromatic groups. This does not mean they smell...
May 20th
28 notes
3 tags
Slit/Split film
Astroturf: it’s not turf and it’s not astro, but it was the carpet in my freshman year dorm. It’s Slit Film!  Slit film is a cheap and easy way of producing yarns from a variety of polymers. Sheets of polymer film 80µm to 1mm thick, usually comprised of Polypropylene ‘cause it’s super cheap, are slit in to small tapes of 5 to 10 mm wide. After being cut into...
May 16th
3 notes
5 tags
May 14th
8 notes
4 tags
May 13th
8 notes
3 tags
May 11th
10 notes
7 tags
May 9th
2 notes
9 tags
And I Do My Little Turn on the Catwalk
Confession: I haven’t always wanted to be a super scientist. I used to want to be a fashion model, but that dream got quashed when I stopped growing in middle school. But dispite my vertical short comings, ha, a few weekends ago I was a runway model in an eco-friendly fashion show for Judah Ross. Designed and fabricated by the fabulous and talented Oami. The dress I’m wearing, the five...
May 6th
1 note
4 tags
May 4th
2 notes
4 tags
“Better Things for Better Living…Through Chemistry”
– DuPont advertising slogan 1935 -1982
May 2nd
5 notes
4 tags
May 1st
April is done! whew. That was an epic month. I’m sure by now you’re sick of the April “Material Deluge” project, and I’m ready for something new too. But school and research and a wedding in Hawaii have sapped my brain. So this is what you get…
May 1st
2 notes